Windows memory diagnostic won't stop looping

Hey,

I setup the windows memory diagnostic to run from my windows 7 RC last night to test the memory (obviously lol) since my build's having some issues.

Without getting into those issues, the memory diagnostic is running in it's loop, and the only options on the screen are F1 for the options menu (which will let me choose type of tests, etc, however it will run the tests I choose for as many runs as I choose, but then it will go right back to looping the default again), and ESC (for exit as you probably know as well... however it will not exit, only begin the default loop again).

The status has not shown any memory problems after I don't know how many loops, and the tests have never frozen, it just won't go to the OS. I'm sure there may be something I'm missing, but this is the first time this has happened.

Any ideas?

Thank You!

alright, so I had memtest already on a cd, and used it through a full pass... no errors found. Upon exit the system rebooted and went back into the windows memory diagnostic loop same as earlier.

My system:
Haf 932 case
i7 920 cpu
asus p6t deluxe v.1
6gb ocz ddr3 1600 (running at 1066 at the moment)
WD caviar black 640gb hd (tested good with WD tech tools)
Zalman 850hp psu
Evga gtx280
Thermalright TRUE120 1366 with push fan
I've also got an lg dvd rw drive and a blu ray drive



Although I had my system overclocked for a while, I changed everything back to stock and auto in bios until I can get the system stable again. Basically it has completely random black screen shutdowns. Heat doesn't seem to be an issue with the cpu, gpu, motherboard, or the HDD as reported by either core temp, asus' pc probe 2, and evga precision. obviously exact temps are worthless since ambient temp and other factors play too big a role, but they are all well within thier limits, and i haven't even tried playing games in a few months... yes this random shutdown is when most components are almost idle or in use.
I don't know how to test a power supply, but I have no outward reason to think it's failing, and it will power the system and components for hours in the bios without shutting down also... this obviously doesn't test it's use with the system stressed, but the system isn't stressed (physically) when the shutdowns occur.

Sorry if I changed my own thread... that's all the basic info, but for now i simply can't get into the OS because of the looping of windows mem diag.

Thanks again

Try ctrl-shift-esc (or alt-ctrl-del) and get Task Manager up and kill the process?

Never used it - and prolly now I never will lol.

BTW, running Prime95 and checking the box to "Detect Rounding Errors" will probably catch more memory issues than any other diagnostic tool.

Been doing lots of diagnostics here on Tom's the last several months. I never saw a memory error memtest detected that Prime95 missed. OTOH, Prime95 has detected several right after memtest.

Memtest has one significant advantage - you can run it from a bootable CD.

Reboot and press F8 as if you were going into Safe Mode or manually starting the memory diagnostic. Select "Boot Windows Normally".

Try swapping sticks of ram, I am not sure if your board will boot with only one stick installed try that.

3 X 2GB sticks ? So if your system will boot from one stick you can test each one individually.

also if your RAM is bad then you have to question if your RAM was bad during the install process and if you burned your DVD disk on said system.... In other words any code that has ran through that RAM may be questionable.

My vote also goes to Memtest on a bootable CD, some Linux live disks include it. I think Ubuntu comes with it.

But make sure your Memtest will work with more RAM if you plan on testing all your sticks at the same time ?

When the BIOS screen comes up... tap F8 continually... don't just hit it once and hope you hit it at the perfect time. Don't stop tapping until you get some sort of boot menu.